Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is an enhanced version of the critically applauded Hearts of Iron II, originally released early in 2005. Like the original Hearts of Iron, this sequel is a real-time game, set during World War II, that emphasizes global strategies over unit-by-unit tactics. The main interface is an iconic, nation-level map, through which troops and equipment can be moved, diplomatic measures applied, and attacks launched. Players can take control of one of more than 175 countries and ... Read more

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We have improved the general AI interface of Ground and Air coordination on a massive scale. Air Forces now have a more important impact on the AI strategy at a whole and the AI themselves tends to use them more and also in a slightly smarter and efficient way. The Garrison AI has also been vastly remodeled. It now tries to optimize the occupation process itself. It processes an intelligent distribution of minimal troops for a maximum effect, for example, best suppression and defense of key provinces and victory points. On the maritime side, the Naval AI tends to create more efficient fleet combinations for the different tasks it faces. It will create large fleet concentrations by itself with an emphasize on battleships for invasions, depending on resources and doctrines - carrier fleets for sea dominance, for transport, screening, convoy or ASW missions smaller, more flexible task forces. The overall coordination between the various fleets of a country has been greatly optimized. The AI system and files are fully modifiable with a mix of static values and dynamic rules.
will contest an air or sea zone while jointly occupying it. Orders
Particularly if you play a larger nation, you will find that the sheer number and geographic separation of the forces you field can make them a daunting task to manage. To reduce the micromanagement requirements and allow you to focus on the zones of greatest activity, AoD allows you to give standing orders to most units. When you are initiating a large-scale assault involving large numbers of units or a combination of land, naval and air forces, you will also need to carefully coordinate these attacks to achieve maximum effect. The game's order interface makes this surprisingly easy to achieve. Each unit has a useful set of orders that may be given to it beyond the basic "move here" or "attack right now" commands, An available option: which depends on the unit type, is selected on the order interface and then the force will carry out these orders exactly as you have instructed. The specific options are detailed later in the manual, but the concept that you should understand is that the order interface includes the ability to set a date and Combat time that you would like a force to begin an action, allowing Arsenal of Democracy does not seek to model you to coordinate the orders of multiple units. In many combat on a highly detailed, microscopic level. You do not cases, you will also be able to set a date and time (or control individual soldiers, squads, platoons, companies or operational condition) for it to discontinue operations or even battalions. In AoD you will issue orders to divisions (or even give a unit a set of standing orders to repeat the same whole armies) and your battles will represent a contest for mission multiple times, allowing you to focus your attention the control of much larger regions of land (provinces) rather elsewhere while it goes about its business. than individual beachheads or buildings. The actual handto-hand fighting occurs behind the scenes, in your CPU, and Air and Naval Combat your progress is displayed using graphic and numeric Air and naval operations do exist, of course, but are feedback as each combat ensues. abstracted to a greater degree in Arsenal of Democracy; otherwise the added level of complexity would be Movement is Attack for Land Battles overwhelming to most players. You will usually assign A significant change in actual battle mechanics has general orders to each air wing or flotilla, giving specific been introduced in Arsenal of Democracy. In previous time period and other parameters that you would like it to Paradox games and in many other strategy games, for that follow, and you may then pretty much leave it to its own matter, a land force would be ordered to engage an enemy devices to carry out these operations until it receives new in a neighboring province, move there, and then upon its ones or the orders expire. arrival a combat would ensue. The loser would then retreat This is not to say that combat won't occur between from the province and the victor would remain. This is not these forces, it will, and quite frequently at times. When the case in AoD. Instead, the game employs the concept of this occurs, there are special rules that govern the "movement is attack" in all land-based battles. engagements which take the types of units involved into Combat is Initiated as soon as a land force begins consideration, as well as the time of day and weather to move towards an enemy province that is being defended. conditions. Aerial combat is further limited by the range of The battle will rage on until one of the sides has gained the the aircraft involved, as they will eventually need to break upper hand, at which point either the aggressor's off and return to base to avoid running out of fuel and movement is discontinued (if it loses) or the defending force ammunition. begins to withdraw and the victorious attacker conducts its It is vital to understand that neither sea zones nor movement into the province and assumes control. This the air space above provinces are subject to control in the system alleviates a number of common issues (such as way that the provinces themselves are. There is no being unable to tell where an enemy unit is moving until it "ownership" of them, and neither aircraft nor naval vessels is too late) and also offers a number of new operational are capable of capturing a province. Most often you will use possibilities for both the attacker and the defender. Forces them in support of your armies, seeking to soften up an in adjacent provinces may support the armies involved in enemy's resistance through bombardment or to hamper, or the battle, and behind-the-lines reserves may be positioned even cut off, his lines of supply. Combat between them will to make a last-ditch effort to shore up the defenses. Air and therefore most likely be a contest to determine whether you naval battles, however, do not use this combat method and are able to carry out these goals.

The Fog of War This doesn't refer to a weather condition, but rather to darkened regions of the map where the game will hide things from you, particularly the dispositions of armed force, that you aren't in a position to know. It is assumed that you will have sufficient reconnaissance and intelligence sources to determine some basic information about provinces, even in your enemy's territory, but you will be unaware of the location of any forces that don't belong to you and are outside your territory or beyond the sighting range of your units. You will be aware of enemy units occupying provinces adjacent to your troops, but you will usually have only a very vague idea of their complement and size until such time as you engage them. You may also wish to fly several long-range missions deep into enemy territory prior to an attack to gain additional information about possible reinforcements and reserves that the fog of war will otherwise obscure. Keep in mind that some units, particularly submarines, are able to hide their presence, but there are technologies you can research to assist you in detecting and identifying them. Fortunately, your allies will share all of their knowledge of enemy positions (and also their own force dispositions) with you as well. Strategic Redeployment and the Force Pool Any new military units you produce will enter your force pool and can then be deployed at your discretion to any valid location. Naval forces and air forces have an additional deployment prerequisite: they must be assigned to specialized bases that are constructed to house and support them. These bases are limited with respect to the numbers units they can effectively handle, and this number can be temporarily reduced as a result of damage from enemy attacks. Land units that are already in the field may be temporarily withdrawn from active service and strategically redeployed elsewhere without the need to manage their exact movements. As long as they don't have to cross water (which require the use of naval transports and thus active management), they will arrive at their new posting after a period of time. This redeployment method is not possible for naval or air forces, which must be re-based via conventional means. The Main Menu You will then see a status screen displaying the progress as the main game engine is loaded and, once this has finished, you will be presented with the Main Menu. This gives you the options of starting a single player game, starting a multiplayer game, playing the tutorials, viewing the game credits, or exiting the game. Single Player Games Most often you will probably be playing a single player game, pitting your skills against the computer. Click "Single Player" on the Launch Menu and the main menu screen will appear.
Selecting a Scenario or Save Game When starting a new game you will select from a list of available grand campaign games or battle scenarios (area 1). Grand campaigns games use the entire globe and allow you to play any available nation in the world, starting with each nation's historical position at a significant date in WWII and then progressing until the end date in December 1947. Battle scenarios are usually more limited in scope, focusing on short, specific engagements and often restricting the nations that may be selected and even the part of the globe that is being used. Many of these scenarios disable some of the game's more complex interfaces, providing the player with only scripted forces, replacements, and resources to accomplish their goals with, and usually having special victory conditions. The battle scenarios are great for playing fairly short "what if" games around major offensives, or for one-time multiplayer games of strategy. For the purposes of this manual, though, I will assume that you have selected a grand campaign game and that all interfaces are available to you. Once you have begun play you can save your game at any time. To load a saved game, simply scroll through the list of file names (area 2) and select the one you wish to resume. Selecting a Nation After you have selected a grand campaign, battle scenario or saved game the nation selection portion of the main menu (area 3) will display up to ten national flags. Click on one of these to select that nation and display a brief overview of its historical situation during that era. If you don't see the flag of the nation you wish to play, rightclick on any of the flags to display a list of additional nations and select the one you want. If you still can't find the desired nation, then either it doesn't exist (it has been eliminated from the game due to conquest) or you have selected a battle scenario where that country is not available for play. Changing the Game Options At the bottom of the screen (area 5) you will see three buttons. Click the Options button to change the settings to suit your preference (see side bar). If you make a change this will be displayed in the log area of the main menu (area 4). If you don't change anything then the game will use the same settings as the last time you played or will use the default settings if this is your first game. If you made a mistake and intended to play a multiplayer game or tutorial, you can click the Back button to return to the start menu. Game Options Difficulty: there are 5 levels of difficulty that will apply global modifiers to most aspects of the game (industry, resources, combat, movement, and more). At easy and very easy levels, the Al nations will be handicapped and the player will be given artificial bonuses. At hard and very hard

forces, and the rest of the world. There are some very handy "redundant" interfaces on these pages that allow you to make a number of similar adjustments very rapidly, and many items are hot-linked to allow you to quickly jump to a province or unit on the Main Map without having to search for it or use one of the other methods of locating items.
important will be displayed in a message box but will not pause the game. Others will display a small message notification symbol at the right edge of the screen, waiting for you to open and respond to it. Many of these have a time limitation and will blink for a short while before disappearing. Messages that are probably of only minor importance will simply be written to your history log. Those The Date/Pause Button that are likely to be irrelevant to you, like notice of a trade The current date and time are displayed in a button agreement being signed between two nations with whom you have no ties will not be displayed at all. at the bottom right of the top bar. The time shown always You can change most of your game's message reflects Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and, depending on settings by clicking on the top bar's menu button, then what portion of the map is presently displayed, could be significantly different from the local time. If you click on this clicking the options button and then selecting the message settings button. This will display a scrollable list of message button, the game will pause for as long as you wish. types that you can set to any one of the display options. Clicking on it again will resume play. You can also press either the Pause button or the Space Bar on your keyboard You may also change the notification setting for a particular type of message in-game (without entering the sub-menu) to pause and resume. by right clicking on the message when it appears (even in the history log) and then selecting the new display mode The Game Management Menu Button from the options box. Immediately to the right of the date/pause button is a button labeled "Menu". Clicking this will bring up the Message Settings Game Management menu where you may select from AoD allows you to customize the way that several options: messages are displayed and now includes an optional Save: Allows you to save your game in its current state. message box close delay no more accidentally closed The default file name will be your country, date and time, messages or events. For each type of message you may but you may change this to whatever you like by simply select it and then set it to display in one of the following typing in a new name. Once the save is complete you will ways: be returned to the game. Do Not Display: use this setting to suppress this message Options: This brings up the in-game options sub-menu from displaying at all. (similar to the new game options) where you may change the game speed, toggle between sprite icons and counters, Display in Log Only: these messages will only display in the history log change your auto-save settings, and adjust your sound Message Notifier: these messages display a small icon on effects and music volumes. There is also a box at the the right side of the screen. Clicking on it opens the bottom of this sub-menu allowing you to change your message box. New for AoD, even more messages and message settings. Hints: This turns on the hint boxes that are displayed when events are available for this custom selection. Message Box: this setting is for more important the game first launches. information and will cause messages to appear in a large Surrender: This ends your current game session (we all message box as well as being recorded to the history log. have to sleep sometime). Your current game data is lost Message Box with Pause: this setting will bring up a when you exit so make sure you've saved first. message box and pause the game until you click "okay" on Return: Returns to the game. the box. Note that in multiplayer games the auto-pause function is disabled and this message will simply bring up a Message Boxes message box. You will receive many messages informing you of things that are happening during play. These may be Events notifications of foreign diplomatic offers; they could be Arsenal of Democracy also incorporates a special reports from your armed forces advising you that they have engaged in battle or arrived at a destination; they might be event system. These are usually historical events of great reports from your scientists announcing a new technology; significance that have been programmed to occur during the course of your game and that can't easily be modeled or they could simply be an intelligence report about using the regular game engine. In some cases, there are international affairs that may not seem to directly affect prerequisite conditions that must be met in order for an you. event to trigger, and many of them have a degree of Messages can be displayed in several ways, and when you first install AoD these will initially be set to certain randomization to make the exact date of their occurrence defaults which you can later change to suit your preference. somewhat unpredictable. There are also a variety of recurring random events that may have very beneficial, or The most important ones will cause a message box to possibly detrimental, effects. appear on the screen and will pause the game until you At first glance, an event box may look somewhat have acknowledged it. Ones that are somewhat less similar to message box, but there are a couple important

will cause the map to begin scrolling in that direction (left, right, up or down) until you. remove the pointer from the map edge. You can also use the Mini Map to quickly jump to a different area of the world by clicking on the part of the world that you want to view. Another method is to use the Province Hot Button to jump to one of your nation's provinces. Simply click on the button (the first of the six buttons.it has a small graphic of a map) and a scrollable list of your provinces will appear in the information panel. Click on one of these to center the map on that province. The next four hot buttons (see below) can also be used to jump to the location of a specific land, air or naval force, or to a combat currently being fought. Message boxes that appear during play will often include a "goto" button that you can click to take you quickly to the relevant area of the map. If you know the name of the province you would like to go to, you can also press the"?" button on your keyboard and type the name of the province (spelling is important!) into the box that appears on your screen. Many of the pages in the Statistics Folder include a "hyper-link" that will take you directly to a province when you double-click on its name. That's quite a few methods. and I'm undoubtedly forgetting some!
Province Name Each province's name appears on the Main Map and in the top left corner of the Province Information panel. Hovering your mouse over the province will also display a tool-tip with its name, terrain, any special weather conditions, as well as the name of the nation that owns it and controls it (if different). In some map-modes, the tooltip will also identify the area and region to which the province belongs (this can be important when issuing certain orders for your military). Province Ownership and Control The flag of the nation that owns the province appears just below its name in the information panel. You can click on the flag to open the Diplomacy Folder with this nation pre-selected. If this province is currently occupied by another nation, then the flag of the controlling nation will be partially superimposed over the owning nation's flag. It is the controlling nation that receives any assets from a province. Victory Point Value

project. Once you have decided on a project that your team is able to research, click the Start Project button to assign the team to this project. The main area of the screen will then change to display the project details with an indication of the overall progress being made on the project. Money will be withdrawn from your national cash reserves to finance the project and, as time passes, you will be able to see the team gradually researching each of the component advances. You will also see an indicator showing the overall progress being made on the project. If you lack sufficient funds to continue financing the teams work on the project, then research progress will slow dramatically, the teams skill level will be set (temporarily) to zero, and a large red dollar sign will be displayed as a warning. This penalty will be removed once the teams financing has been restored. After all of the components have been researched, the project will be complete and you will be notified that the team has finished its task. Whatever effects the technology gives will be immediately available, however in many cases this will require some degree of implementation. Canceling and Reassigning a Project Only one team may be assigned to a project at any one time. At any time that you wish you may cancel the project and then assign it to a different team (or abandon it and start work on something else instead) by clicking the Cancel Project button on the project details screen. You will lose all of your progress towards this project, including any components that have been completed and all cash invested, so this should only be done under dire circumstances.
obsolescent vessel to recoup its manpower, or whether to keep it in active service and benefit from the crews experience. Technology Summary Clicking the Overview button (at the extreme upper right of the category buttons) will display a summary of the effects of all the technologies you currently possess. This is where you can gain a rapid overview of the most advanced unit types that are available, the benefits enjoyed by your nations industry, as well as all of the mission types that you are able to order and how effectively your forces will be able to carry them out. Remember that some units and mission types will not become available until you have researched the necessary technologies and/or doctrines. If you see a mission listed as no or a unit type without a model listing, then you lack one of the prerequisite technologies. For such an innocuous little button this sure packs a wallop from a human players point of view. I can only urge you to review it frequently!

and have accumulated some wealth, you can spend this money in expenses without investing a single IC in consumer goods. Production The production slider is used to allocate IC towards the manufacture of the orders in your Production Queue. Allocation shortfalls will result in low priority orders being placed on hold until new IC becomes available and could result in the loss of the gearing bonus for an order. Excess allocation of IC to production is ignored and is displayed in the summary as unused IC. Remember, unused IC does not consume resources so this is an excellent means of conserving those valuable resources until you need them and for guarding against unexpected fluctuations that may result from enemy bombing campaigns against your industrial base. Supplies As mentioned earlier, it is vital to ensure that you are supplying your military with a daily allotment of food and ammunition. This is withdrawn from your national stockpile of supplies and sent out to them along your supply chains. You can trade for supplies with other nations, but it is usually far more efficient to allocate IC to their manufacture. Whatever quantities you manufacture will be added to your national stockpile at a rate of three units of supplies for every unit of IC that you allocate. A warning though, having supplies in your national stockpile doesnt mean that your armed forces will receive those supplies. The delivery of supplies depends entirely on whether your supply chains are intact and unimpeded, and on the effective supply efficiency in the provinces where your forces are located. This sliders sole function is to manufacture and stockpile the necessary materials.
full IC, Radar, AA, Port and Infrastructure Capacity will recover completely and for free over the time span of 10 years. Upgrades As you gain new military technologies you will be able to upgrade the abilities of your existing land and air units, and the air groups attached to your carriers. Naval vessels cannot be upgraded. This is done by allocating IC to the upgrades slider and will require a prolonged investment (often up to several months) to complete. Your forces will continue to operate normally at their old combat values during this time. Insufficient allocation will increase the length of time that this upgrade will require, while excess investment is ignored and added to your unused IC total. Air units only upgrade during the times when they are idle and at their assigned home base, and if too many units are assigned to the same air base then this process will take far longer. Repair Provinces New for AoD is a new slider for repairing provinces. Here you can assign IC to repair destroyed buildings, Installations and Infrastructure. A small amount of all this gets always repaired for free (about 5%), but investing some spare IC into this area might speed it up around 50x times. I urge you to take care that you always spend some on repairing or you might just wake up one day with your country laying completely in ashes because no one cared to do some rebuilding. National Transport Capacity (TC)

nations with whom you will rarely come into contact, it can be a serious oversight to ignore the capabilities of an The Chief of Staff is responsible for a nations enemy. You should evaluate a foes strengths and combined armed forces and will usually subscribe to a weaknesses, seeking to take advantage where you can and school of thought about how best to wage war. He is perhaps even tailor your own domestic affairs to either usually biased towards one of the three main divisions of the armed forces (army, navy or air force) and will give that counter or exploit them. one particular group an extra edge over the others. Dissent and Partisans The Chief of the Army
Dissent is a global effect in your nation and can be thought of as a barometer of overall pubic satisfaction. It The Chief of the Army directs the overall activities affects all provinces equally, whether national, owned or of a nations ground forces. He will usually have a combat occupied, and is displayed in the Top Bar at all times. There doctrine that provides bonuses to certain types of are two direct and important effects of allowing your engagements or to a specific type of land unit that he nations dissent levels to rise: you will suffer decreased prefers above the others. performance from your armed forces and you will increase the likelihood of civil disobedience. The Chief of the Navy As far as your public is concerned, the most The Chief of the Navy directs the overall activities of unsettling action you can take is to plunge your nation into a nations maritime forces. He, too, will tend to prefer a war without cause or provocation. In some cases, your type specific doctrine that may have decisive benefits and may of government and your domestic policies will prevent you favor one type of vessel over all others. from going to war at all; but in those instances where you are permitted to make a declaration (and choose to do so) The Chief of the Air Force some portion of your public will object to this action, Like his army and navy counterparts, the Chief of causing a sudden rise in dissent. The amount of this the Air Force will subscribe to a doctrine that may give increase will depend entirely on your reasons for going to some of your aerial units advantages in certain types of war and are also modified by your domestic policies. If you missions. are declaring war simply to satisfy your territorial ambitions (or for the sheer fun of waging war) then your public will New Policy Positions for AoD take a very dim view of it. If you declare war as a result of For each major country we also added a unique a casus belli, a just cause, then your public will be far ideology, policy and culture. For Aod, there are three new more understanding. A casus belli may result from another policy positions for every country. They are all dependent nation having control of one of your national provinces (as on a countrys base ideology, for example, autocratic or displayed on the diplomacy map-mode). But it can also democratic, left wing or right wing. Because it is very hard occur if you guarantee the independence of a nation which in real life for a nation to just switch between different is then attacked by a third party. Because you have made value-sets, changes first takes a lot of time and secondly these diplomatic assurances, your public will be quite gives a huge amount of dissent to your nation. Thus, you supportive if you subsequently declare war on the are still limited in new policies to the options in your near aggressor. There will be no rise in dissent if you find environment, for example, as a fascist Italy you wont be yourself at war as a result of one of your allies declaring able that easy to go a liberal way in social politics but war, or due to a nation declaring war on you or a member maybe one which tends into the Nazi region. of an alliance you belong to. The effects these policies have on the game-play Dissent is not limited to foreign affairs. The most values itself are very broad. The changes range from the common reason for it rising is actually as a result of your field of diplomatic and/or intelligence costs, to build times failure, domestically, to meet the consumer goods and/or organization and dissent modifiers. expectations of your public. If you allocate too little of your National Ideology: Which tries to model the industrial capacity to their production, then dissent will ethics of the population itself. begin to rise. The demand for those goods, and the rate at Social Policy: Which simulates in an abstract way which dissent rises if you fail to meet that demand, will the social fabric of a country and the degree of depend on your domestic policies and possibly on your development towards a human and tolerant society. cabinet ministers. National Culture: Which actually tries to As the level of dissent rises, the most immediate represent the overall mindset and social conventions of a effect you will notice is that the performance of your armed country. forces will begin to suffer. Low levels of dissent will have only a marginal impact on their combat abilities, however Other Nations Domestic Policies and Ministers higher levels may place your forces at a significant disadvantage. There is also a chance that dissent may reach There is a tendency of newer players to pay very a level where your public will rise in open rebellion and seek little attention to the policies and cabinets of other to overthrow what they view as a corrupt and malevolent countries. While it is arguably not particularly vital for you government. They will also be far more open to accepting to review the domestic situation of smaller, more remote

will typically do so for any nation in their sphere that isnt diametrically opposed to their form of government. Be warned that stepping on their diplomatic toes can result in no small degree of resentment, a drop in your relationship values, and could even lead to war. Initiating Diplomacy To initiate any diplomatic action, select the country from the listing at the left side of the Diplomatic Screen. The Diplomacy Options area will now display a list of all available actions that you may take with this nation. Ones that you may perform immediately are highlighted in orange, while others may be grayed out if you fail to meet a necessary condition to initiate that action, generally a case where the relationship or belligerence values are too high or too low. Some diplomatic options require cash to perform, so this could also prevent you from taking an action until your national cash reserves have increased. There are also some diplomatic options that will only appear if you are at war with a nation or not at war with a nation. There are also options that will only be displayed if you have selected your own nation as the target. A tool-tip will appear when you hover over an option, briefly detailing what it means and also informing you of the cost of the action and any prerequisites that you currently fail to meet. Once you decide on an action, click on it. In many cases a new interface will appear that allows you to specify additional details, while in other cases the action may take place immediately or you may be asked to confirm the action. If there is a cash cost for the diplomatic action, it will only be deducted when you confirm the action and dispatch your diplomat. You will not lose the money if you change your mind and cancel the action; but once confirmed, the money will be deducted whether or not the diplomatic offer you send is agreed to. (For instance, the cost of sending a diplomat to negotiate military access will not be returned to you if the access is declined.) The cost of a diplomatic action will fluctuate, depending on your domestic policies, your cabinet, and the size of the nations involved (which explains why I dont give precise costs in the sections that follow). The tool-tips will indicate the exact cost of each action. Once you have sent a diplomatic message to a nation, you will have to wait for a period of time before you are able to initiate any further diplomacy with that nation (although you may conduct diplomacy with other nations if you wish). If a response is required, you will usually receive it within a day or two (although human players may take longer to answer in multiplayer games), but you must wait a full week before another message may be sent to that nation. When you receive a diplomatic message that requires a response (usually a trade offer), you will have a limited period of time to respond before it becomes invalid and disappears from your screen. The following are the various diplomatic options that may be available to you: Offer Trade Agreement There are two different types of trades that can be arranged between two nations: a trade agreement and a

mode). This is not a peace treaty option! It is a demand that the nation return territory to you that is rightfully yours. The cost of sending your diplomats will depend on the amount of territory involved, and although it does not increase your belligerence, it will seriously degrade your relationship with that country regardless of whether or not it agrees to your demands. Coup Nation Coup Nation is a means of financing a coup dtat of another nation. If you have sufficient funds to send to the insurgents, then you can select this option regardless of whether or not you are at war with that nation. The attempt will not always be successful, being influenced primarily by the target nations level of dissent, although this is also modified by the abilities of your Minister of Intelligence and the target nations Minister of Security. Declare War This option sends a formal declaration of war to another nation. Making a declaration of war without a casus belli is a very belligerent action. Democratic nations will not even have this option available to them unless the recipient of their declaration has either provided provocation, or has a very high belligerence value and the democracy has a firm domestic policy of interventionism. While there is no monetary cost for declaring war, doing so also risks civil unrest unless there is a very strong reason for the conflict. When you click on the action, an interface will appear that informs you of the effect this will have on your national dissent level and advises you of any allies that the target nation might have. If you wish to proceed, click the OK button. If you change your mind you may click Cancel. A declaration of war will automatically plunge all allies of both nations into the conflict as well, they have no choice in the matter, although they do not pay a political or domestic price for doing so. Once begun, war can only be ended by concluding a peace treaty, or by all nations on one side of the conflict being eliminated. The subject of a declaration of war will also gain a small amount of sympathy from the international community, resulting in a modest reduction of his belligerence value. Sue for Peace The sue for peace diplomatic option will only be available if you are at war. There is no cash cost to initiate this action and you may sue for peace whether you feel that you are in a position of victory, or one of defeat. When you sue for peace, you will first be asked what type of peace you are interested in negotiating. If you feel that you are winning the war, then select the insist on demands button to assemble the terms of your enemys surrender. If you are in a losing position, then you may wish to select the beg for peace button to put together a proposal of what youd be willing to give up to go to peace. If you would be content with a return to the status quo before the war broke out, making neither concessions nor demands, then select the white peace button. Whichever option you

terms will apply only to the nation with whom you are negotiating, not to any nations that are part of that alliance, but the overall interface will be generally the same in both cases. Each peace term has a value and as you assemble your offer in the center area of the interface these are tallied at the bottom. You can make multiple demands and can mix various types of terms to assemble your final offer. The possible peace conditions include: Territory: You may specify territory whose ownership is to change hands if the peace is agreed to. If you are insisting on terms, then you may only demand provinces that you currently occupy. If you are an alliance leader, then you may also demand provinces that are currently occupied by your allies and ownership would transfer to your ally in that instance (the recipient of each province that you demand is clearly indicated). If you are begging for peace, then you may also offer any provinces that you own, whether or not they are occupied by the enemy. Note that all occupied provinces not included in the treaty will revert to their rightful owners when the treaty is signed. Forced Disarmament: This option may only be demanded by a victor (not offered by a loser) and may only be imposed upon the nation with whom you are directly negotiating (not one of his allies). If the enemy agrees to this, he will be forced to disband his entire military. Military Access: This is another term that may only be demanded by a victor. If agreed to this will give the victor unrestricted access to move through the losers territory. Make Puppet: If you have a high enough war score, usually because you control many of the enemys key provinces (identified by a red star in the victory points mapmode), you may demand that an enemy submit to you and allow the establishment of a puppet regime in his nation that is loyal to your government. If accepted, the enemy will succeed all territorial claims to your nation and a new government will be installed that is of the same type as yours. The new puppet will leave any alliance it is currently a member of and will join your alliance instead. It will automatically grant your country military access to their lands and henceforth a portion of the puppets daily revenues will also be transferred to you (as a sort of tribute or war reparations). This is a fairly hostile action, although not as belligerent as outright annexation, and will probably only be accepted if you enjoy vast military supremacy and the target nation feels that it has little or no chance of survival otherwise. Once you are satisfied with the terms, click the OK button to send your offer. I should caution you that an enemy is unlikely to agree to a proposal that is close to the exact war-score value and is much more likely to accept it if there is large benefit to doing so. Certain nations will also be highly resistant to accepting any peace terms whatsoever (beyond outright annexation) with certain other nations, particularly the faction leaders. As with any diplomatic option it may take a day or two to receive a response and you will not be able to initiate further diplomacy with that nation until at least one week has elapsed. If the peace is agreed to, then all nations involved

are currently occupying, not to each province in the chain. This abstraction (and somewhat incorrect assumption) is necessary to prevent undue CPU load that would slow the game to a crawl, and to avoid forcing you to micromanage the exact route that every single one of your supply chains uses when there are multiple possible paths. When the supply chain is created, it will always use the closest available source of supply first. This could easily be an allies depot rather than your own, as long as it has the necessary supplies. If that depot lacks the necessary supplies, the next closest depot will be used, etc. As long as you or your allies have a depot somewhere that has the supplies and can be linked, you will remain in supply. While the Supply Map-mode will display all provinces that currently could receive supplies, this doesnt necessarily mean that the supplies are actually in place. If you become cut off from your capital, or if you lack the supplies and fuel in your national stockpile, or an allied source of supply then you will be in very deep trouble. The best way to check a divisions current supply status is to select the field command and look at its status. A small dot appears in the status area to indicate that the field command is in supply and the source of that supply is listed immediately below this. If it isnt in supply, this will be indicated as well. Overseas Supply While supply chains are established automatically, overseas supply also requires that a flow of goods move from your capital (where supplies are manufactured and collected) to whichever depot is acting as the supply source for your forces. You can have this done automatically for you by selecting the Auto-Create/Destroy Supply Convoys option in the Convoy Management interface (which is accessed via the Production Folder). You may prefer to manage this yourself using the same interface to build up extra supplies. Dont forget to correctly identify the materials that this convoy should transport; and if that depot is also a collection point for oil from local provinces then you will also need to ensure that any convoys that are shipping goods back to your capital dont end up taking oil away from this location. Resources are now used for IC on a provincial basis meaning that you can produce locally and don't need to ship resources from colonies back and forth. Supplies now are produced at a province scale, the need to transport supplies to IC rich remote areas (for example India) has been greatly reduced. This also makes surrounding the capital ineffective, as the supplies are still produced in the remaining part of the country just as before. Air Supply In an extreme situation your field command may become completely cut off from supply. In such a case it is possible to use transport aircraft to ship supplies to your encircled forces but this is extremely expensive and very inefficient, not to mention that enemy fighters will do their best to blow your transports out of the skies. Using air supply will create a new depot in the province that your

Basic Land Combat

Overview Now that weve looked at the details of your forces, deployment, basic movement and supply, we can finally begin to discuss combat. To avoid throwing too many options and variations at you all at once, well start by looking at what happens when one of your land forces engages an enemys land force: a simple one-on-one engagement between two opposing field commands. This will introduce the basic rules that make up the core of Arsenal of Democracys combat system. In subsequent sections well look at more complex situations where multiple forces are participating, and where air forces and navies get involved. Combat, in Arsenal of Democracy, represents the struggle for control of large provincial areas and should be thought of as a series of engagements, rather than a single battle between two large forces. Battles can often last for many hours, days, or even weeks, depending on the size of the forces involved and how well the enemy has prepared to defend the province. It will continue in a series of combat rounds until one side is either victorious or is ordered to disengage. If the defender is victorious or the aggressor breaks off the attack then things will remain status quo. If the defender chooses to flee or has been forced into full retreat, the attacker will begin to move into the province to clean up the last pockets of resistance and begin the occupation of the newly-conquered province.
All land battles in AoD involve two sides: an attacker and a defender. Combat is initiated whenever a field command is ordered to move into an adjacent province that contains an enemy field command. The defender is always the force that occupies the province and is attempting to hold it; and the attacker is always the force that is attempting to capture the province. When you order a field command to move into an undefended enemyEntrenchment: Digging In controlled province there will be no combat and a Before we look at initiating combat and how its movement arrow will appear. The arrow will be red to resolved, we need to quickly touch on two subjects: indicate that the command is moving to occupy an enemy entrenchment and provincial defenses. Entrenchment is an province. indication of how well prepared the defending force is to In all cases where the province is defended, rightrepel an attack and will be available after you have clicking on a province will automatically display the Orders researched the appropriate technology to enable it. You can interface so there is no need to hold down the Ctrl key as

mentality that comes along with putting 50 or 60 divisions in a large stack) so you must always remember that the penalties for exceeding leadership capabilities will make any excesses almost meaningless. In fact, the likelihood of you losing a battle increases dramatically when you are significantly over-stacked, because those excess units will eliminate the commanders skill and possible trait bonuses and will contribute virtually nothing to your offense. They are also very likely to sustain serious casualty and organization losses and break, thus taking the rest of the army with them. If you absolutely have to bring large numbers of troops to bear against an opponent then your best, and perhaps only, chance at victory is to ensure that you have an HQ division nearby to double your command capabilities, bolster your supply, and possibly produce a combat event that could turn the tide. The other thing that players often overlook, or fail to capitalize on, is the traits of the various field officers. You may easily find that a small number of divisions commanded by a lowly Lt. General with the commando trait can push back an enemy in a situation where a succession of Field Marshals with 12 divisions each might easily fail. Look at the context of the battles you expect to engage in and then try to ensure that you have the right officers on hand to fight them. Dont forget your Chief of the Armys traits either, since he may give an overall benefit that can be employed if you structure your forces to take advantage of it. Broad Front Defensive Counter-Attack Initiatives When fighting along a broad defensive front with many interlinking provinces, it sometimes pays to disrupt an enemys attack by launching attacks of your own against his advancing or supporting troops. While those arent battles youll necessarily win, the flanking effects and additional strength and organization damage you inflict might be enough to disrupt the enemys troops and blunt the main thrust of his advance. Remember, too, that in such a situation he will not have the benefit of using fortifications against you, nor will he have an entrenchment bonus. You should carefully consider holding forces in reserve behind your front lines. Not only does this keep them fresh and ready to step up to help meet a concerted attack, but it can also be used as a luring tactic if the enemy is unaware of their presence. Presenting an apparent weak spot in your front line may induce your enemy to take a chance and attack you in what might otherwise be a poor choice of battlegrounds. Once he commits, take advantage of the support defense order to quickly move your main forces into position and inflict nasty casualty levels. Once you have won the battle, which is very likely, you can then press the advantage by following up with an attack of your own against his now-weakened forces. In many cases this is your only good chance to punch a hole through a strong enemy front. Needless to say, this is yet another situation where having an HQ division nearby can have an enormous effect.

Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday Armageddon By Nathaniel Goddard
Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday Armageddon is a difficult game to easily criticize. Not only is its concept that of grand strategy it lacks characters, story lines, or really any form of complex gaming systems. However, that being said, graphics would be the thing to improve the most. Second would be sound effects, and third better handling of the diplomacy and intelligence tabs. Paradox Interactive, the developers of HoI2DDA concentrated first and foremost on the concept of a grand strategy game. Everything else was secondary to this notion, including graphics and sound. As a result everything is 2D, units, maps, everything save for the sliders and buttons on the interface. Game play wise I guess that this doesnt matter that much except that it really, really, really looks bad. I cant illiterate this enough, Ive seen computer board games (like Risk!) do better. So the ships turn slightly and the planes fly in little circles over a particular zone, maybe an explosion or two but nothing impressive or even mediocre. If the game wasnt so brilliantly designed into such a unique strategy game I likely would be unable to get over the graphics. That becomes an even more impressive thought due to the fact I abhor not playing games simply because of graphics. If the graphics are bad, the sound is abysmal. Im not entirely sure whom or what was in charge of doing it but it completely doesnt fit. On the opening and loading screens you are given some dramatic classical-jazz fusion. As strange as this sounds it carries and fits well for the moment. What becomes irritating is when you realize that the music doesnt stop, nor does it really change either. Since this is a grand strategy game (and remember no eye candy!) your basically left alone with your plan for world domination and this insanely repetitive and highly agitating music for hours. I understand the need to be dramatic and to add some finesse and variety into the game; in fact, Im totally for it. However using what amounts to be one song, the same song, for all eternity just makes me run into the sound preferences and disable the music. Which doesnt leave me with much of anything else considering there really isnt any other sound besides it. Given the scope of the game and how well everything runs this is more of a mild complaint rather than outright I HATE YOU! However, during the game it is not uncommon to get bombarded with trade deals, at times a dozen or more. Not only is it extremely time consuming to have to click on each one and either accept or deny it, it becomes annoying. This becomes even more so if playing multiplayer where pausing the game is a big no no, and every unnecessary click means less time managing forces and units that really need to be looked after. The intelligence and diplomacy tabs have a slightly different problem although it is along the same lines. The issue here is that to send spies, and influence nations, by far the two most common commands (at least that I use) you have to go in and enter them every single time, and select each country specifically. It gets even more tedious when, after you do it, there is a cool down period, without any sort of automation it gets frustrating, especially when you lose track of the dates/game time. It may not seem like much when several (game) days pass but when
multiplied dozens if not more times, it quickly adds up to months or years of lost game time in spying, sabotage and assassination. The good news is that all of these problems would only require moderate amounts of work to correct. Improving the graphics even slightly would make a substantial difference. Im not asking for incredibly rendered highly detailed work here, or even Command and Conquer Generals. Im talking like, Star craft detail. It goes without saying that if this were to occur the world map itself would have to be altered as well. Im not asking or even expecting miracles here either, just simple terrain mapping that may show major elevation changes or significant terrain changes, such as beaches or cliffs. Units wouldnt even need to fight one another in the dueling action seen in games such as Starcraft, or Command and Conquer, they could keep the same system of movement via arrows. The objective here is not to go overkill (both on the game and the computer processor, remember its a world battleground with over 60 countries!) its to simply add the 3rd dimension into an otherwise 2D world. This doesnt mean the game engine or combat system needs to be retooled as well, this is simply about looks and nothing else. Along with the graphics would be to completely redo the music soundtracks and to add in actual sound effects. The current introduction music works well however the trend cannot continue forever like a monotonous record like it does. It is here where I would mix in rock, electronica, and trance and have them playing in the background. Regardless of the possible style of music all of them would be specifically tailored to be more about constant energy and ambiance rather then outright blast, power, and dynamic, in your face, it must be more subtle then that. Lastly I would add in options on both the diplomacy and intelligent tabs that would allow you to select the country, and then for instance check a box saying allow all trade or ask. For spies it could work something like automatically send spies and automatically influence country and if they were checked you would be charged the amount of money, the cool down period would occur, and then it would repeat the action until you ceased it or something else prevented it (such as running out of money.) The changes to Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday Armageddon that I propose are intended to keep the fundamental concepts and interfaces the unchanged. The one aspect, which makes this software unique, is how it is structured entirely to be a grand strategy game; any fact that would take away from this is not needed. The annoyance with the diplomacy and intelligence sliders is not a criticism of the designers and developers but a discovery made by playing the game, and making observations. If this minor correction was implemented it not only would reduce the micromanagement the player needed to do but would make multiplayer games considerably less frustrating or nothing more then mouse clicking wars. The changes to the graphics, sound and music are not so radical as to harm the integrity or purpose of the game but serve as an update that would further engage the player. The

idea of being able to see the invasion point with its beaches and hills is so much more thrilling then a simple line on a colored map. The thought of 3D units rather then 2D images will aid in liberating the player from an otherwise mundane world. Together these two evolutions would powerfully shape and influence the game. In the most ideal and perfect sense what would occur is a 3D world where 3D units move in accordance with your commands, and when circumstances warrant battle it out. Combined with a new musical score and powerful sound effects strategies would literally come alive or shatter into bitter defeat before your eyes. Radical thinking? Perhaps, but then again Honda is a radical game that has set the standard for strategy games. At the time of its conception computers were considerably less robust then they are now. With the advent of mighty processors, graphics cards, ram, it would be easy for computers to handle such an evolution and upgrade.

Technical specifications

Full description

Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is an enhanced version of the critically applauded Hearts of Iron II, originally released early in 2005. Like the original Hearts of Iron, this sequel is a real-time game, set during World War II, that emphasizes global strategies over unit-by-unit tactics. The main interface is an iconic, nation-level map, through which troops and equipment can be moved, diplomatic measures applied, and attacks launched. Players can take control of one of more than 175 countries and aim to turn the tides of war in their favor. This "Doomsday" version of Hearts of Iron II extends the timeline, allowing development of certain powerful and experimental weapons. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide